Sony planning a shift in India strategy, to sell only ‘premium’ smartphones

The move could very well be related to earlier reports suggesting that Sony plans to ‘defocus’ on India along with some other regions and will only sell premium devices to ensure better profitability.Robin Sinha | TOI Tech | August 02, 2016, 14:42 IST

NEW DELHI: Sony India is all set to change its India strategy. The company has confirmed to TOI Tech that it would only sell ‘premium’ Xperia smartphones in India. “Sony Mobile drove transformation in FY15 towards a profitable and sustainable company globally including the areas mentioned. As part of our transformation, we are sharpening our focus on select products and sales channels,” said Vijay Singh Jaswal, head of Xperia business, Sony India.

“Considering the recent shift, our marketing strategy will now revolve around offering premium products in the smartphone segment,” he added. Despite the not-so-rosy situation globally, Jaswal says that because of Sony’s premium strategy in India, the average selling price has soared by 55% in Q1 of FY 16 as compared to the same period last year.

Supporting the company’s strategy of selling premium products in India, Jaswal adds that “Going forward we [Sony] aim to launch flagship products for our customers in India which will further enhance our presence in the market.” The company plans to make use of the upcoming festive season to offer its products at special offers.

Though the Japanese tech giant did not confirm this, but the move could very well be related to earlier reports suggesting that Sony plans to ‘defocus’ on India along with some other regions and will only sell premium devices to ensure better profitability. The announcement was said to come because of the low 0.3% CAGR smartphone growth prediction in Indian, Chinese, Brazilian and Indonesian markets in FY 16-17. Sony also reportedly said its global average annual growth dropped by 1.4% and the growth in India, Brazil, China and Indonesia slowed to 0.3%.

Sony has tried almost every strategy it could in the past few years to stay ahead in the oversaturated smartphone market. The firm previously shifted its strategy of launching handsets once in a year to once in six months. Few months back it confirmed that the Xperia Z5 handsets are the last in the ‘Xperia Z’ series and that Sony will be diverting its attention towards the new Xperia X series moving forward.

“The Xperia Z line has reached its culmination – Xperia X series represents a new chapter and evolution of our product strategy. Whilst the Xperia Z series was all about bringing the best of Sony’s advanced technologies to smartphones, Xperia X series is based on bringing smart, adaptive Sony user experiences across camera, battery performance and hardware/software design,” said Sony in an official blog post.

Since Sony India claims to be focusing on offering premium handsets, it can be derived that Xperia M or Xperia E series of handsets may not launch in the country in future. It will be interesting to see how Sony plans to sustain or grow with such a niche product offering in India. According to the latest IDC report, Sony has been struggling in the smartphone market lately. The top 5 spots have been captured by Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Oppo and Xiaomi.

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